Preparation Instructions:
In a large dutch oven, cook and crumble the sausage until brown. Remove from skillet and drain on a paper towel. Pour off any excess fat. Add onions and bell peppers to the skillet and cook over medium-high heat until the veggies are soft and golden brown, about 7-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
To build the layers, place 1/3 of the cheese in a medium-sized ovenproof dutch oven. Add half the sausage. Add another third of the cheese, then as much of the veggie mixture as you’d like (you may have a little left over.) Add almost all of the remaining cheese, the rest of the sausage, then whatever cheese you have left. Sprinkle the top very lightly with chili powder.
NOTE: Depending on the size of your dutch oven or baking dish, you may have some ingredients left over. Just build up the ingredients in the dutch oven; they’ll shrink quite a bit once the cheese melts!
Cover and begin to check it about 4 to 5 minutes in. You want to bake it until the cheese is totally melted, hot, and slightly bubbling…but before the cheese starts to firm up/harden. (In other words, you still want the cheese to be extra gooey.)
Remove from the heat, top with the diced tomatoes, sprinkle on the tomatoes, and serve immediately with tortilla chips!